


Things Better Left Behind

by Heki564



Series: Denial is Our Strongest Wall [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Season 3, Flashbacks, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Slow Burn, The Hale Pack - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 21:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9787157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heki564/pseuds/Heki564
Summary: There's a murderer in Beacon Hills that is targeting the sheriff's old basketball team and drags Peter and Chris back to their past. While the rest of the pack focuses on solving the murders, Peter and Chris must resolve their past.(Side pairings of Scisaac and Sterek but not a main focus.)





	

Sheriff Stilinski had loved high school. Sure it had its rough times (math exams, Mrs. Smith, etc), but being on the basketball team had made up for everything else. Locker room towel fights, after game parties, _winning_ ; he wouldn’t give up any of it for the world. Back then he would have never expected to find himself looking down on the body of a fellow teammate, let alone the second in a week.

Last week the body of William Stern was found in the middle of the woods, torn to pieces and animal prints all around. While cause of death was linked to animals, human hair not belonging to Will was found around the scene and human skin under his nails. Now, John stood over the body of Philip Merr. It was nearly identical to the last scene and he would bet his badge on there being human DNA found.

Both of these men had been on Beacon Hills High’s basketball team his senior year. Will had been in his year and though he had sat on the bench most of the time, he was their best buzzer beater. He hardly ever missed a shot when the end drew near. Philip, also in his year, had only ever been good at rebounds and after they became seniors he spent most the entire season on the bench. John had always joked that he was their unofficial mascot.

To see both these men in such a state broke his heart. They were good men. Hell, Phil had a wife and two kids while Will had become the basketball coach of the middle school. There was no reason either of them should have been murdered. On top of that, the only link between them that he knew of was their old team. But why would someone be picking off members of the old Beacon Hills High basketball team now, after all these years? It just didn’t make sense to him.

John sighed, turning away from the coroner as he loaded Phil’s body in the van. He had to make a few phone calls. If once was an incident and twice coincidence, he was going to be damned if three would make the pattern.

 

* * *

 

Twice a week Derek tried to hold pack meetings, once would be during the day for training and the other would be used to create plans of action when the big bad of the week was out and about. However, since there were no creepy were-beings or lizard people running amuck Stiles found the planning to be a moot point. Instead, he insisted that they have pack movie nights instead. “It’s a bonding experience!” And since Derek couldn’t say no to Stiles’ pestering insistence, of which Stiles took full advantage of, tonight was the twelfth movie night.

At first Peter had stayed far from Derek’s loft on these nights. By the fifth night he showed up with the premise of the pack bond. In reality he felt that Derek really needed him to stay on his toes. He was getting too comfortable with his human pet and Peter didn’t like it. Humans and wolves should never mate. Friends, sure. Humans in the pack gave the wolves the support and anchor they needed. It was just mates that never seemed to work out.

On this particular night, after Erica’s chick flick won due to some unfair moves on her part (really, hiding his coffee until he agreed with her and Lydia to watch The Notebook was just diabolical) Peter settled into a chair a little ways away from the puppy pile on the couch. He never wanted the instinct of pack closeness to apply to this pack. This wasn’t his pack, wasn’t the Hale Pack. Yes, Derek was the alpha and the name still applied, but it was made up entirely of outside _teenagers_. No thank you. Especially since Allison joined them. The last time he got nice and close with an Argent, he ended up more broken than together.

Twenty minutes in his phone rang causing everyone to snap their heads around to him, Lydia pausing the movie with a glare. Giving them his best unapologetic grin, he headed up the stairs to answer the phone. “Hello?”

“Peter Hale?” The voice was male and he assumed knew him. He hardly gave out his number though. Only Derek and Isaac had it in the pack. Curious, he responded in the affirmative and waited for the explanation.

“It’s John Stilinski… We uh… played basketball together in high school?”

Stilinski. How unexpected. He leaned back against the wall, responding, “Ah yes. What can I do for you sheriff?”

John chuckled, “So you’ve heard I made sheriff?”

John had always wanted to be a cop and he was a good leader; of course he would end up as sheriff. “Of course. Anyone in Beacon Hills knows.”

“Still here then?”

Peter let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah. Can’t seem to escape it.”

John agreed with him, “It is hard to leave.”

There was a pause before Peter felt the need to prompt the sheriff from his memories. “Did you just call to reminisce or did you have something specific in mind?”

The sheriff cleared his throat. “Yeah, well. I just felt the need to call and warn you.”

Suddenly interested, he stood up straight. “Oh? And what would you be warning me of?”

“There’s this case I’m working on, a group of animal attacks. The two victims where Phil and Willy.”

“From the team?” He remembered both of them. He hated them.

“Yeah. The only link I can find is our team so I decided to call around, make sure everyone was safe. ” John sighed. “Though Sean isn’t answering his phone and I don’t have Argent’s or Thomason’s contact information.”

Peter frowned at the mention of Argent, initiating a short pause. “Yes, well. Thank you for the warning.”

“Hey you don’t happen to have Argent’s number do you?”

“No,” he said firmly, and he didn’t; never wanted it.

“Damn. I just figured since you were so close in high school…”

He scowled, his drop in mood making an appearance in his tone. “We didn’t stay in touch.”

“Right.” John cleared his throat again. “Well, I’ll let you get back to… whatever you were doing.” Awkward goodbyes were said and then each hung up.

Peter made his way back down the stairs, good mood long gone. He felt the eyes of the pack on him as he sank into his seat, TV still on the same scene he left during. Eavesdroppers, the lot of them.

Derek raised an eyebrow, only one brave enough to ask, “What was that about.”

Peter shrugged. “People I once was associated with are dying.”

“And you didn’t kill them?” Stiles. The boy should really learn his place. Derek lets him get away with too much.

He scowled at him. “No. Animals killed them.”

Stiles lifted a suspicious eyebrow. The kid really needed to stop hanging around his nephew. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Well I didn’t kill them.”

“So why did my dad call you?” And Derek needed to stop telling him things he shouldn’t know.

“Because we were on the same team.” Done with the conversation, Peter stood up to leave. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go mourn some dead teammates I don’t care about.” No one stopped him as he crossed the room to the lift. Sighing once the doors were closed, he silently made plans with the wolfsbane laced alcohol in his cupboard at home.

 

* * *

 

Stiles was muttering to himself as he walked into his house. “Find out this, Stiles. Ask about that, Stiles. I need to know, Stiles.” He sighed, heading to his father’s office. “Stupid sourwolf and his stupid face.”

The sheriff looked up from the files splayed out on his desk. “Hey son.”

Stiles nodded. “Whatcha doin’?

His father sighed. “Trying to get into contact with some old friends.”

“Can I help?” He looked over the files on the desk, eyes pausing on the year book. His father never let him look through it. He had suspected that the sheriff was embarrassed by something in it, which only made him want to look even more. He couldn’t help it. He reached for the book.

John slapped his hand away, giving him a look. “Actually yes. Do you have Allison Argent’s number?”

Confused, he looked up from the yearbook. “Yeah, why?”

“I need to get in touch with her father.” He then mumbled, half to himself, “He’s a hard man to get ahold of.”

Stiles snorted. More like a hard man to get rid of. “Let me text her then.” Pulling out his phone, he decided to use this as an opportunity to dig. “Does this have to do with a case or something?”

The sheriff sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe.” With a prompting look from his son, he continued, “Two men from my high school basketball team turned up dead. I’m just making sure no more do.”

Stiles nodded, showing his father the text from Allison with her father’s number and a questioning ‘why’. “Allison’s dad was on your team?”

“Yeah.” John laughed. “He was part of the dynamic duo. Him and Hale where nearly inseparable.”

Now _that_ caught his attention. “Hale? As in Peter Hale? As in Derek Hale’s psycho uncle?”

“I don’t know about psycho… But yes. That Hale.”

Stiles shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”

 “Believe what you want. That’s how it was.” John yawned. “Now get to bed. You have school in the morning.”

“Right.” He reached for the yearbook again, earning another slap. Pulling his hand back sharply, he yelled, “Goodnight!” as he ran up the stairs.

Stiles waited a few minutes before silently heading back down to the office. Just as he suspected, his father had fallen asleep on the files in front of him. Smiling, he shook his head as he slowly pried the files out from under his father’s head. He paused as his father moved in his sleep, then threw his hands up in the air in celebration of success. A few papers fell out of the folders and he scrambled to pick them up. He froze as his father mumbled in his sleep, too afraid to move until the sheriff let out a silent snore.

Grinning he turned to leave before an idea struck him. He quickly located the yearbook on his father’s desk, grabbed it, and quickly left. Needless to say, a few minutes later he was in tears laughing at all the phone numbers and love notes written from the female population. His father was a player!

Finally, he got down to the actual reason he took the book, or at least the one he was going to tell Derek. Flipping to the basketball team’s photo, he scanned the faces of the fifteen members. He found Mr. Argent and Peter standing next to each other in the top left corner, grinning. He couldn’t really believe that. Had to be a mask for those not in the know. Yeah. That was it. Mask.

Opening the files, he got to taking pictures of the pages within. Once that was done he took one of the group, hoping Derek didn’t look too far into the fact his uncle was looking quite happy as he stood next to the brother of his family’s killer. What were the chances he’d even notice?

Yeah. Peter had some explaining to do. Before he closed the yearbook, a single photo in the corner caught his eye. In it, a young Peter Hale and Chris Argent were grinning, arms wrapped around each other. They were facing the camera though their eyes were locked on each other’s. Stiles snapped a picture of it before taking everything back to his father’s office.

Peter definitely had a _lot_ of explaining to do. Mr. Argent too.

 

* * *

 

_“Hale, Argent! Smile!”_

_Chris and Peter looked up from their little wrestling match to be blinded by a flash. Peter quickly let go and scowled at the boy behind the camera. “Not cool Wagner.”_

_Wagner grinned and walked away, waving back at the two. “Good luck tonight.”_

_Chris laughed, yelling back a thanks while Peter continued to pout. “What’s wrong Hale? Afraid your eyes ruined the picture?”_

_Peter growled and punched him on the arm. “Shut up Argent. It was an unfair sneak attack.”_

_Chris grinned. “Right. Those yearbook kids can be so brutal.”_

_Peter rolled his eyes at the other teen. “Yeah mock all you want. It was still cruel and uncalled for.”_

_Chris laughed as the bell rang to end lunch. “You’re one to talk. Who always uses his supernatural gifts to sneak up on people all the time?”_

_Peter beamed at him, packing up his stuff and heading out of the room, Chris following suit. “That’s different.”_

_Chris grinned, “Sure, Petie. Sure.”_

* * *

 

**_Stiles Stilinski sent a photo to group_ **

**_Stiles Stilinski changed the name to ~The Cool Ones (And Jackson) ~_ **

**Isaac Lahey:** is that Peter and Chris?

 **Stiles Stilinski:** yep!

 **Isaac Lahey:** you totally photoshopped that

 **Isaac Lahey:** right?

 **Scott McCall:** dude they knew each other?

 **Stiles Stilinski:** they played on the same team as my dad

 **Stiles Stilinski:** they were friends!

 **Lydia Martin:** Oh it looks like they played for the same team alright.

 **Stiles Stilinski:** ew no

 **Stiles Stilinski:** …

 **Stiles Stilinski:** oh god! the images!

 **Allison Argent:** … Dad has some explaining to do

 **Allison Argent:** And no Lydia… just no

 **Lydia Martin:** What? It’s what it looks like. Am I right?

 **Scott McCall:** i dont think it looks relationshipy

 **Isaac Lahey:** Well…

 **Lydia Martin:**  See! Isaac gets it.

 **Erica Reyes:** chris and peter sittin in a tree

 **Erica Reyes:** K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!

 **Vernon Boyd:** …

 **Allison Argent:** Shut up! There is and never was anything going on between my dad and Peter

 **Lydia Martin:** Someone is in denial.

 **Erica Reyes:** with a capital d!

 **Allison Argent:** There isn’t! End of discussion!

 **Stiles Stilinski:** yes ma’am!

 **Lydia Martin:** Whatever you wish to believe hun.

 **Jackson Whitmore:** You’re all a bunch of morons

 **Stiles Stilinski:** thank you Jackson always helpful

**Author's Note:**

> I've got a few fics that I am working on at the moment so updates may come slowly. I have a lot planned though so hopefully not too slow.


End file.
